Crowley's Sacrifice
by JohnLockSher
Summary: Crowley would do anything for his Angel. Including take a punishment from both Heaven and Hell so that Zira wouldn't have to. The archangels and demons found out what the duo did when swapping bodies and Crowley convinced the archangels to leave Zira alone and to let him take both their punishments. Now Zira must put his demon back together again.


"Crowley?!?"

Aziraphale yelled out worriedly when he saw the demon stumbling out of an alley near the bookshop.

Crowley didn't answer, he just continued down the sidewalk towards Aziraphale who stood on the bottom step, holding the key that allows him access to his shop. And the closer Crowley got, the worse he looked, Aziraphale realized.

_'so much blood...' _Aziraphale thought with mounting concern.

The angel snapped out of his shock when Crowley began to fall forward about a foot away from where Aziraphale was standing. He quickly reached his arms out to catch his friend. When the arms wrapped around Crowley, he flinched violently before hearing the Angel's soothing voice, assuring him that he was safe. Upon hearing that, he relaxed into the arms and allowed the pull of unconsciousness engulf him. And, as he fell asleep, he muttered the name of the one who always made him feel safe and happy, and who always brought joy to his life.

"Zira" he muttered with content in his voice before drifting off.

Aziraphale was an absolute wreck. He was worried sick for his dear friend, whom at the moment was lying pale and motionless on the bed that the angel had in his room. The bed was rarely used, mostly for the occasional nap or a lazy day.

The moment Crowley had passed out in his arms, Aziraphale carried him into the shop and deposited him gently on the bed while cleaning the blood away with a warm damp cloth.

He couldn't miracle away the blood because if Heaven looked into it, they would be suspicious. Plus, he wasn't entirely sure that Heaven didn't do this to his friend.

Then he had tried to heal Crowley but all it did was burn the poor demon. The angel had never seen anything like it. He knew he couldn't heal wounds inflicted by hellish instruments but _surely_ Hell did not do _this_ to one of their _own_, right?!

Aziraphale did not know what to think. And, after cleaning the blood away and wrapping Crowley's most serious wounds, he resigned himself to wait for his injured friend to wake up.

...

**_(crowley nightmare)_**

_'wait no! Please don't!'_

_'we've waited for this a long time, Crawley'_

'_No__ im begging! you hear me? im begging you... don't!'_

_Crowley's voice cracked and his eyes burned with the tears that had, at some point, started cascading down his face._

_He would never forgive himself, he knew. He would never forget what he had done. Aziraphale was in pain and about to die... and it was all his fault._

_'Zira! Zira... im so sorry! I-'_

_He was cut off as an invisible force tightened around his windpipe, preventing him from begging for forgiveness by Aziraphale who was currently on the floor about to be thrown into the hellfire with no hope of escape_.

_my fault. my fault. my fault. my fault. my fault. my fault. my fault. my fault. _

my fault. _my fault. my fault. my fault._

_my fault. my fault. my fault. my fault._

_Thats all Crowley could think about._

_His vision darkened for a moment and, at the time, he didn't know why, but he later realized it was because he had instinctively closed his eyes. But he heard everything. He heard his angels screams of agony because, the demons did not throw him directly into the fire, no, that would be too merciful and demons were anything but merciful. No, they threw Aziraphale into the fire but backwards so that his head hung out of the fire and allowed him to register the pain instead of instantly destroying him. This also allowed him to scream, which further pleased the demons and tortured Crowley, who was next on the list to be killed, but this time it would be by holy water._

_"ZIRA!!!"_

_Crowley was screaming as loud as the angel was, though he did not realize it._

_Crowley cried and sobbed, harder than he ever had before. He had failed his best friend, the only person or being that mattered to him, his angel._

**(end nightmare)**

...

"Zira!"

Crowley sat straight up in the bed, pain and fear written across his face. The angel rushed to his side, abandoning his comfy chair that had been placed next to the bed so he could watch over Crowley.

"shhh. Its okay dear. im here. It was just a dream, you're safe"

"A-Aziraphale? you're okay?! Y-You didn't get hurt?" Crowley was stuttering and whimpering in Aziraphales arms and it was breaking the angels heart to see his strong friend so broken.

"Crowley, dear, im okay, no one has hurt me. It was just a bad dream"

"I-it felt so real and the demons t-th-they told me they were going to torture you next"

"Is that what happened to you, dear?" Aziraphale asked, worried about the answer, "did the demons do this to you?"

Crowley stiffened which confused the angel.

"Yes, it was the demons. Hastur and Beezelbub wanted to get rid of me, they found out i wasn't really immune to holy water," and Crowley saw the fear on the angels face and assumed it was the fear that Heaven would come after Zira and hurt him,

"Don't worry, Heaven doesn't know about you," Crowley lied easily. He didn't want his angel to know the truth. The truth that Heaven, specifically the archangels, knew what they had done and had captured Crowley with the intent to hand him over to hell to be dealt with(tortured) while Heaven destroyed Aziraphale for good. But, Crowley had convinced them to let him take Aziraphales punishment and to leave Zira alone. That meant that he had been tortured by both Heaven AND Hell. Once Heaven had finished with him, mainly dunking him in diluted holy water then placing crosses and such against his skin, he had been handed over to Hell where the torture only got worse, he had been sliced into with holy knives and had his own intestines taken out only to be healed and cut into over and over again, then more unspeakable horrors that Crowley had closed his mind against to prevent him from breaking down.

Crowley knew that Aziraphale could not find out that he had taken his punishment for him, the poor angel would never forgive himself.

"Angel... promise me you won't ever leave me... please"

Aziraphale, stunned by the unhindered, raw, emotion in Crowley's voice and face, didn't hesitate to nod firmly and say:

"I would never leave you, my dear, i promise."

Crowley continued to cry with both pain and relief.

"Crowley, will you let me heal you? i cant get rid of it all but the least i can do is patch you up a bit more"

Crowley froze in Zira's arms, then sat straight up looking at the angel in horror.

"you didn't!" he said, but he didn't yell, instead his voice cracked and pure panic registered on his face.

"Crowley dear, i dont understand. I've heaked your injuries before, why does it bother you now?"

"did you... did you see-see it all?" he asked with dread in his throat.

Aziraphale understood what he was asking and realized why the demon was so panicked.

"its okay Crowley. I saw the cross burn. Im so sorry those horrid creatures did that to you-"

Crowley's eyes widened. The demon feared that Zira knew about what the archangels did.

And that thought caused his chest to tightened and he suddenly found it hard to breathe. His heart hammered in his chest and he started breathing heavily, desperate to get oxygen which only made his broken ribs twinge and pull painfully. He tried to calm himself down but quickly found his vision darkening, and his already frail body, just collapsed under the pressure of the panic attack. and he succumbed to the darkness and passed out on the bed.

**hey y'all. I really hope you guys like it. let me know in the comments. and if you see where i need to improve, feel free to tell me.**


End file.
